Amongst local wild residents
Above: Grounds of Voyager Ziwani on the edge of Tsavo West
Copyright Rupi Mangat
Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 27 January 2018
It’s the last days of 2017 in December. Centuries-old gigantic baobab trees are cloaked in thick green leaves. At most times, the tree stands with bare branches in the arid plains that see rain so rarely.
Part 2 of 2
Published Saturday magazine Nation media 20 January 2018
Above: The peak of IYale – second highest of Taita Hills
Copyright Rupi Mangat
Older than the age of dinosaurs these hills continue to fascinate nature lovers
With a few more days in the hills with a mission to spot Taita apalis, our next stop is to Ngangao the largest forest block, Vuria the highest peak, followed by Msindunyi a tiny forest block where Dr Luca Borghesio and research assistant Lawrence Wagura – both associates of the National Museum of Kenya – discovered an undocumented population of Taita apalis in 2012. In total, the indigenous forests measure less than five square kilometres.
Part 1 of 2
An ancient massif of endemic plants and animals
Published: Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 13 January 2018
Above: Taita apalis – criticaly endangered – fewer than 200 survive today in fragmented forests of the Taita Hills in an area of five square kilometers (copyright Luca Borghesio)
The mist swirls and whirls, white and dense, hiding and revealing the valleys and peaks of the hills. We’re on a climb to reach the top of the ancient bare rock that tops the forest of Yale in the Taita Hills.
Above: Cruel taste – a sloth dressed in pink bow with a tourist. Wath the horrendous clip below on how the sloths are captured and put in sacks to be sold in the tourist trade
Published in The East African Nation media December 16, 2017
There’s a right way and the wrong way of doing it…as the recent case of two tourists trampled to death trying to get too close to an elephant … all for a ‘selfie’.
Selfies with wild animals have proliferated over the last two years on social platforms like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter driving the suffering and exploitation for some of the world’s most iconic animals across the world, reads a new report titled Wildlife Selfies launched in Nairobi by the World Animal Protection whose loge reads – Protect animals globally.
Twixt the desert and the lake
Above Lake Turkana from Eliye Springs Resort – Copyright Rupi Mangat
Publshed Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 6 January 2018
I’m in haven floating on the warm waters of the Jade Sea coined by Teleki. It’s the world’s largest permanent lake in the desert and the world’s largest alkaline body officially known as Lake Turkana on the northern reaches of Kenya’s once the ferocious Northern Frontier District. It’s now a World Heritage Site.
Moonlion Safaris 